1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a metamaterial-based electromagnetic wave polarization converter, and more particularly, to a metamaterial-based electromagnetic wave polarization converter in which a reception antenna and a transmission antenna are formed by using a metamaterial, to thus emit an incident non-polarized or polarized electromagnetic wave in an angle-converted polarization direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many radio frequency antenna units mainly produce linearly polarized electromagnetic radiation. When a device such as a reception antenna is positioned to receive linearly polarized electromagnetic radiation, the directionality of the reception antenna associated with the transmitted electromagnetic radiation is important to receive a strong signal.
Most polarization converters used so far are in the form of waveguides or gratings. In recent papers, most polarization converters are configured to include helix structure, meta-surface and background plane composites, or bilayer symmetry pattern structures.
Recently, as research on metamaterials has progressed, areas of applications have been expanding. Metamaterials are materials that do not exist in the natural world, and are commonly called artificially designed materials whose electromagnetic characteristics are determined by a material structure.
The materials of nature are composed of atoms or molecules, but the metamaterials consists of an artificial meta-atom structure of a unit having a size smaller than wavelengths of electromagnetic waves incident from the outside. Recently, these metamaterials have attracted the attention of researchers worldwide in that they can artificially control the physical properties of materials for electromagnetic waves and light waves. One of the typical well-known properties among various metamaterials is a negative permeability characteristic, which can be applied to various fields such as negative refractive index, flat plate lens, and electromagnetic wave absorption.
It is believed that large efficiency can be obtained when metamaterials are applied to a device for converting polarized light of an electromagnetic wave in view of characteristics of the metamaterials. However, conventional metamaterial-based electromagnetic wave polarization converter that can readily use in market is need.